Parents evening is always insightful. It's a moment which can build bridges and offer both parties an idea of how children are when not in school. It can also be a nightmare; one in which difficult conversations can take place and issues not previously raised can take over the meeting, leaving people pretty deflated and unfulfilled. If, like me, you are (or were!) the last teacher at the end of the evening -with the caretaker jangling their keys and pacing the building as a subtle way of telling you you've talked too much - then having a structure to work from will definitely save your sanity (and everyone else's).
For the past three years, we've been working on and developing our parents evening structures and processes, loosely based on AfA's 'structured conversations' and I now feel that, in light of schools' difficulties in holding face-to-face meetings, this may support other schools with getting the most out of the meetings and hopefully keep communication lines open and ongoing at other points of the year in a transparent, enjoyable and supportive way.
Why 'collaborative conversations' ?
The first premise was to ensure that parents/carers and pupils (in attendance) felt part of the conversation in a positive way and that they could work together, with the teacher to set targets and help each other to raise the achievement of the child. It felt important that parents/carers were made aware of the questions that would be asked, so no-one was on the back foot and the structure is already available and familiar to them. This means we send out the paperwork in advance and it also gives time for the teacher to consider the areas for development and positive areas for each child. We have a sliding scale of timings, and this is up to the discretion of the teacher and the needs of each pupil. We will offer 10 minutes for the majority of pupils, 15 minutes for pupils that may need to join the meeting towards the end or 30 minutes for children with additional needs or specific learning targets that need a more in-depth conversation, sometimes with the SENDCo, Family liaison Officer or support staff join the meeting.
We feel that as children enter Upper Key Stage 2, they can attend the meeting, at the parents/carers wishes. Sometimes pupils will join the meeting at the end, so they are informed of the positives spoken about and the targets set and some children have a discussion with their families at home and then with their class teacher the following day.
The content of the conversations
The first page
Originally a traffic light, later changed after a discussion with staff who felt that the concept of 'Red' as 'Stop' failed to be supportive with children who needed possible support of extra interventions in order to make progress. A slight adjustment means that although it will flag up a concern, the discussion is more productive and thought through, and is easily understood by all parties.
Mental health and wellbeing
This was added to the booklet this year, it fits in with our school focus on mental health and well-being and also reflects our societal change due to lockdown. I wanted to gather a picture around the child's current mental health and well-being and how they were during lockdown. This will also provide us with areas we could potentially support with if we were to go into a second lockdown or families self isolating and what strategies and resources we could provide.
Parent/carer voice & Teacher voice
The most vital part and the questions that have had the biggest impact on building relationships with families that are long lasting and are the ones we ask the families at each meeting. They are simple, but offer the opportunity for the parents/carers to have a voice and to share their child's strengths and things they find a struggle. We also ask for their hopes and goals in both the long-term and short-term. These range from being able to learn to ride a bike, learn their time tables, deal better with their emotions, or learn to read, long term goals tend to be around aspirations for when they leave school or something the children have shown an interest in when they are older. This is always a really nice way to connect with the families and find out areas of interest for both the adults and the children.
In all cases, the teachers and support staff will already have got to know the pupils and have a solid idea of what the children's targets will be based around in reading, writing and maths. Due to time restraints and the focus of the school, these are the focus for our specific targets this year. We also give an opportunity to discuss any other aspects of school that may need targets or bespoke and specifically targeted support.
Collaborative targets
Once the targets in reading, writing and maths have been discussed, the way in which these can be achieved collaboratively can then be set. This may be around daily practise, specifically signposted resources or apps, quizzing or time scaled small steps for success. The teachers will often discuss these with the support team and ideas are banked year after year, so there are a multitude of ideas available that we already know have an impact. This year we have added a box which the child can write down the ways they can help themselves. We are hoping children will take more ownership of their targets and think of ways they could work at home and in school.
Final notes
Pretty self-explanatory really! But as a school, we really value the wider curriculum. I still fundamentally believe that children need to learn to read, write and add up before they can really enjoy wider curriculum subjects in a way that purely brings them joy (I know some of my colleagues will argue with me about this!) So it is important that the teachers have the opportunity to also note and discuss any other areas of the curriculum they would like to share with families. It also means that subject leaders can share their expertise and encourage families to get involved in extra curricular pursuits!
What next?
Autumn and Spring term follows this structure. We use the same paperwork and add to the Autumn term discussion. In Summer term, we will complete pages 7&8 with our statutory reporting pages - a list of each subject, and a personal pupil report from the teacher. This completed booklet will go home as the pupils final report.
This year we will be conducting collaborative conversations by phone and this booklet will be sent home for families to have. They will be used to base our Pupil Progress Meetings and form our support timetable, ongoing conversations and actions for identified pupils.
What have we found out so far....
The first year we introduced a version of these, the timings were a little hit-and-miss, but parents/carers really appreciated the opportunity to talk about their children. We had a couple of parents asking to 'just be told' about their children and didn't want to discuss them further, which meant the paperwork was left blank.
We found that we could use the paperwork throughout the year, if we needed additional conversations and we also used the paperwork when we had interventions to support wellbeing and low confidence. The support staff could highlight to the child their parents opinions on their strengths and qualities, which was really great.
As a SENDCo it has been really helpful when looking for supporting statements, hopes and aspirations for children from their parents/carers. It has also helped form Assess, Plan, Do, Reviews and set interventions and small working groups.
and finally.....
I think whatever role you end up in, at the heart, you're always a teacher. So you can take great joy in the fact that I mocked up what I wanted for our collaborative conversations with tape and paper and scribble. I wanted to play around with a mock up and share it with my staff before committing to actual print and not being the most tech savvy, this seemed the most sensible way to get feedback! :D
